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Tom Evans helped me get over my creative block around writing fiction several years ago (right here on the podcast!), and today he's talking about his new book, The Zone: How to get in it and stay in it.
We also have a message from podcast sponsors Kobo Writing Life, which helps authors self-publish and reach readers in global markets through the Kobo eco-system.
In the interview, Tom and I discuss:
- What is “the zone” anyway? It's not actually just one zone, there are lots of different ones. So you can interchange this with the word ‘state'.
- The difference between the Creative Zone and the Busy Zone. Techniques to enter the Creative Zone and how that ‘bends time' including meditation and dreaming. There are also different parts of the creative process and sometimes the various parts can be collaborative. On completion and knowing when to stop as a critical aspect of the Creative Zone.
- How the Fear Zone can stop you from completing your creative project. What that fear is specifically and where it comes from. You can listen to the podcast with me and Tom on writer's block here.
- The entrepreneurial zone and the skill of following your ‘gut' as well as the ability to actually produce. Each book is its own project, its own product and has its own life in the world. Tom and I talk about how our first books didn't exactly set the world alight but were responsible for changing our own lives. How ‘failure' in one regard can be true success from another perspective.
- On balancing your time and the ‘Time Zone'. Tom has a course on Bending Time and he's pretty metaphysical about the qualities of time. It's fascinating stuff! We talk about getting in tune with your own creative cycles, which might relate to nature. Tom is creative in spring and finds a moon-thly rhythm, as well as making appointments with his book when he is most creative – in the morning. Tomorrow's physics is yesterday's magic/metaphysics – like Skype video interviews across the world!
- Identifying and combating the Danger Zones – on frustration at not achieving more, faster; jealousy and comparisonitis. We need to realize why it happens, and also that we all face them. They are places to learn, but the aim is to move through into healing. It's a cyclical process. On kindness to self and why authors need to remember it. On the cumulative effect of combining the zones.
You can find Tom at TomEvans.co and ‘The Zone” buy links and details here. He is on twitter @thebookwright
Please do leave your questions and comments below.
View Comments (4)
Tom Evans has so much to offer creative entrepreneurs, and his latest book, The Zone, is one of his best, I highly recommend it. For creatives, understanding how to make the most of our creative potential is one of the most important issues we face, and Tom has given us a great tool to do exactly that.
Thanks Joel & all the better a book for using one of your excellent book templates ...
I enjoyed this interview, it was very informative and helped me change some of my blocks as far as writing and how to run it as a business. Thank you so much for your articles and podcasts, I am truly a fan!
Hi Reina,
So glad you liked it and thanks for your comments.
We should learn to like our blocks as their role is to teach us and help us evolve to the next level ...
Onwards & upwards as they say :)